Talk by Prof. Frank Oliver Glöckner (MPI Bremen) – 17.11.2016

Ocean Sampling Day(s): Monitoring the Anthropogenic Impact on Microbial Communities in Coastal Marine Ecosystems

Date: Thursday, 17 November 2016, 1:15 pm
Venue: GEOMAR, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, Lecture Hall
Host: Prof. Dr. Ute Hentschel Humeida

Prof. Frank Oliver Glöckner from the MPI Bremenn is a marine microbiologist and head of the Microbial Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Group as well as a PI of several EU consortia. Frank Oliver will give his presentation next week on the citizen science project “MyOSD” that has received much public attention. The MyOSD is an excellent example of how the general public and stakeholders can be involved, therefore this talk should be interesting to a wider audience.

Abstract:
Coastal zones are a thin boundary between mainland and ocean waters. They are highly dynamic environments receiving a high load from terrestrial environments, natural or human-based. This makes them highly interesting ecosystems for marine microbial studies. The Ocean Sampling Days (OSDs) were initiated by the EU “Ocean of Tomorrow” project Micro B3 (Marine Microbial Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology) to obtain a global snapshot of marine microbial biodiversity and function. OSDs are simultaneous, collaborative, global mega-sequencing campaigns to analyze marine microbial community composition and functional traits on a single day. On June 21st 2014, 2015 and 2016 scientists around the world collected around 350 ribosomal DNA (rDNA) amplicon datasets and metagenomes plus a rich set of environmental metadata. Standardized procedures, including a centralized hub for laboratory work and data processing, assured a high level of consistency and data interoperability. Since 2015 OSD is accompanied by the Citizen Science campaign MyOSD to enhance the marine microbial community snapshot resolution of the OSD and increase environmental awareness of the general public. This seminar discusses the results obtained within this framework and provides future insights on anthropogenic influences and control factors of coastal microbial communities.